EDITOR’S COMMENTS
NEWS Hot Stories
04 – Trade calls for abolition of APD; Celebrity to build new Edge ships; Cook to invest in staff training; Bidder values Club Med at €915m; Tui posts £362m profit
News Digest
08 – Belgium braced for chaos; Travel 2 celebrates; CAA campaign
Special Report 10 – Thomas Cook Signature
Round-table 12 – How’s the market been?
Big Interview 14 – Gavin Tollman, Trafalgar
NEWS YOU CAN USE
Product News 19 – Brand USA touts MegaFam
Operator News 20 – Operators refund APD for kids
Destination News 22 – Hobbit film to boost NZ arrivals
Cruise News 24 – Silversea promotion ends soon
Hotel News 26 – Avani opens first Thailand hotel
ALL ABOUT YOU
Letters 30 – Green; APD; Tui; Gold Medal
Comment 32 – Giles Hawke: Flying is special
Readers’ Lives 36 – Natalie Bell, Midcounties Co-op
All For You 44 – Kenya, Mekong, cinema tickets
Mystery Shopper 46 – Agents put in Viennese whirl
DESTINATIONS Greece & Cyprus
49 – Paphos is reinventing itself ahead of Capital of Culture year 53 – The perfect Peloponnese
Africa
57 – ‘I feel like David Attenborough’: get up close to gorillas in Rwanda 60 – Safari: Save, spend and splurge
JOBS AND CLASSIFIED
66 – Vacancies and business services TRAVELWEEKLY BUSINESS
News
71 – Tui results; Cooper on APD 72 – Online specialists feel ‘bullied’ by latest plan to amend the PTD
LUCY Editor-in-chief HUXLEY
Rejoice! Cut in APD is a gift from George
inally, some good news from government! You wait years for a cut in APD, then two come along at once. George Osborne’s abolition of APD for children went further than anyone expected in cutting the tax for under-12s next May and under-16s the year after. It also kicked in sooner than anyone thought possible – so a pat on the back to industry coalition A Fair Tax on Flying. For once, no one worried about a lack of 12 months’ notice
F
– refunds for those already booked and lower prices than previously advertised are good messages for consumers going into January.
Of course, Willie Walsh is right to point out the chancellor didn’t go nearly far enough and Flybe is right about the double penalty on domestic flights (page 4). But the fillip to family holidays is welcome, and Ryanair showed its new-found consideration for customers by offering refunds on children’s APD not just from May 1, but from the end of March. “It all helps,” Tui Travel boss Peter Long told analysts as he
reported results for the 12 months to September – another year in which Tui outperformed the market (page 6 and 71). Long’s message that he has yet to see demand as a whole pick up is more sobering. Let’s hope the chancellor’s claim that incomes are now rising proves correct. Europe’s Council of Ministers also acted quicker than most thought possible in the past week by agreeing a new Package Travel Directive. This has profound implications for online retailers (page 72) and the directive appears also to have dismayed Abta. Expect to see a lot more on this in the new year.
lucy.huxley@
travelweekly.co.uk WHAT LUCY DID THISWEEK 1
2 3
Had a fantastic catch-up with Nick Wilkinson and the team from Norwegian Cruise Line to hear about some exciting plans for 2015.
Met with some amazing industry executives at a lunch to raise money for Abta LifeLine.
Got into the Christmas spirit with a Festival of Lessons and Carols at Tonbridge School.
11 December 2014 —
travelweekly.co.uk • 3
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